Name: Utility
Brand: Barker

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

OSTGUT 032LP

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Black Vinyl

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2019-09-13

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Forced Exposure

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

4250101409264

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Total Cap

Black LPx2

Artist

Barker

Genre US

Techno / Electro

Label US

Ostgut Ton

Back In Stock

Pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance as a rave metaphor fits the music of Sam Barker. The Berghain resident and Leisure System co-founder has spent the last few years exploring the euphoric potential of altering key variables in dance music formulas. This was especially true on his 2018 Ostgut Ton debut EP Debiasing, which was flush with unconventional rhythmic chord stabs, melody, and percussion but devoid of kick drums. What seemed like an experimental exercise on paper was in reality equally geared towards the club: tracks that worked for the floor but resisted the genre categorizations that kick drums often provide. This has come to define Barker's sound. Now, on his debut solo album Utility, Barker turns his focus toward melding experimentation and dance floor pragmatism with the psychology behind the musical decision-making process. In his own words: "After Debiasing it occurred to me that my musical decisions were often unintentionally utilitarian, following an instinct to maximize pleasure in one way or another. It's sort of unfashionable to admit, but by removing elements that have strong genre associations, this became a natural consequence." Accordingly, Utility is a playful but non-ironic musical approach to a whole spectrum of utilitarian and trans-humanist ideas: from models for quantifying pleasure and "gradients of bliss" to abolishing suffering for sentient beings (not just people) through the ethical use of drugs and nanotechnology. Over nine tracks, Barker's vision ebbs-and-flows through waves of deeply psychedelic musical vignettes; free-floating and futuristic melodies and rhythms as targeted brain stimulation. The sound draws heavily on modular synthesis, as well as self-built mechanical instruments and plate reverbs to create atmospheres that are at once alien and emotionally recognizable, functional, and utopian. Utility is by no means a concept album. Instead, it is an honest take on music as both pleasure-maximizer and consciousness-expander.

Utility

Music US